Sand In My Shoes
by maplexsyrup
Summary: Oneshot. "Two weeks away it feels like the whole world should have changed, but I'm home now, and things still look the same." NikkiCam.


_Two weeks away it feels like the whole world should've changed  
But I'm home now  
And things still look the same…_

--:--

_**I've still got sand in my shoes**_

I've gone to camp every year for five years in a row. Usually, when I get home, I leave my bags on the floor of my bedroom, not bothering to unpack until a week later when my mom yells at me for having a messy room.

This year, I unpack as soon as I get home, throwing everything into the laundry basket. Except for the grey sweatshirt I find shoved down at the bottom of my bag. I slide it on, breathing in that scent I'd got so used to smelling over the summer. The front of the sweater says _Briarwood Academy. _It started with a dare—

"_Dare," I picked, not bothering to complain that I had gotten stuck with the first question of the summer. Madison stood, searching the field with her brown eyes, looking for inspiration. She found it in the form of a new boy we had never seen before. Despite the heat, he was wearing a grey hoodie that said _Briarwood Academy _across the front. Kate nudged me, silently wishing me luck for whatever silly dare Madison had cooked up for me to do._

"_I dare you… to get that new boy's hoodie."_

—it started with a dare. The dare that caused me, on the first day of camp, to look in to the eyes (one green, one blue) of the new boy. And fall completely, hopelessly, head-over-heels in love.

I pulled my worn pink and brown Pumas out of my bag. They still had sand in them.

--:--

_**And I can't shake the thought of you**_

I swear, he just creeps into my head and ruins my day at the most inappropriate times. Mostly they are silly little memories; things he said to me in line for dinner, him scoring the winning goal in our impromptu beach soccer game, him and Thomas catching the biggest frog I'd ever seen. But sometimes I remember The Kiss.

_We had snuck away from the campfire, walking down to the lake. In the moonlight, we sat on the dock, dangling our toes in the water, sharing his iPod headphones, and listening to some Strokes song I had never heard but instantly loved._

"_Cam?" I said, and then stopped as he turned his face toward mine. We didn't need words._

It was my first—and his, too—but definitely not my last of the summer. There were others, mostly resulting from those games of Truth or Dare that went too far—the ones where Audrina kissed the giant frog (it didn't turn into a prince), Wade did the worm in a puddle and had to come to dinner with a big wet spot on his pants, and Kate, Madison, Alice and I had to go skinny-dipping in the lake.

--:--

_**I should get on, forget you  
But why would I want to?**_

Kate and Madison think I'm crazy. I probably am. I think I mention how much I miss him in just about every email I write to them. But since he has _that girl_ now, he doesn't reply to my emails. He never said anything about the gummies I sent him or the case of Jones Soda with our picture on the label.

Besides, in twenty years I'm not going to remember the camp nature hikes, or the sing-alongs, or even the talent show where we were forced to 'participate' in by doing the chicken dance.

I'm going to remember our moonlight walks by the lake, the crazy games of truth or dare, and staying up all night gossiping with Kate and Madison. The best summer of my life. Too bad it set me up for the worst year.

--:--

_**I know we said goodbye  
Anything else would have been confused**_

I remember the last night more vividly than I remember anything else.

"_So, this is it, huh?" I look at Cam, trying my hardest not to cry. Still, one lone tear escapes and runs down my cheek. He wipes it away with his thumb, looking sad._

"_You know I'll never forget you." He smiles. _

"_And I'll see you next summer, right?" _

"_Hopefully." And I know that's the best answer I can get._

"_Email me." I say, before leaning in for one last kiss, then walking away before he notices I still have his sweatshirt._

--:--

_**But I wanna see you again**_

Yesterday I emailed the old crowd. Alice, Audrina, Wade, Thomas, Patrick. I didn't bother emailing Kate and Madison. I talk to them almost every day as it is. They all said they were coming back to camp. At the last second, I added Cam's name to the mailing list, then hit Send before I could chicken out.

**Nikki-**

**I'll see you in a month.**

**-Cam**

I screamed, and then turned up the radio as loud as I could and danced around the room.

--:--

Today I started to pack for camp. I pulled my pink and brown Pumas out of the closet.

They still had sand in them.


End file.
